BOOK REVIEW ON

Coping PovertyA Psychological Perspective

Authors:

Nurun Nahar KabirRanjan Kumar Guh

Reviewed By:

Dr. Monira Yasmin, Roll-41Dr. Mymoon Redwan Chowdhury, Roll-42

Guided by:Mr.Abdullah Al Mamun,Joint

Director(Research),BARD

Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD)Kotbari, Comilla

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Acknowledgement

All praises go to the Almighty Allah, the Creator of Universe, Who enabled us to complete the review work

of such a resourceful book successfully.

We express our gratefulness to our learned guide, Mr. Abdullah Al Mamun, Joint Director (Research),

BARD, Comilla, For his kind co-operation, valuable suggestions & inspiration regarding

this book review to be done in such a short course of time.

We are also highly obliged for expressing our gratification and sincere appreciation to the respected course management and to all the

participants of the 124th Special Foundation Training Course for their warmth co-operation, encouragement and valuable suggestions during

the entire period of work.

In addition, we apologize to the Authors of this book for any of our mistakes regarding this review.

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ContentsSl

No.Subjects Page

1 Introduction 4 - 6Bibliographic Information of the book 4

Introducing the authors of the book 5Main theme of the book 5

Structural & Physical Get up of the book 6Importance, Significance & Relevance of the book 6

2 Components of Subject Matter 6 - 12Objectives: General & Specific 6

Methodology 7Study areas & livelihood strategies 8

Approaches, perception, reaction & understanding of poverty

9

Psychological impact of poverty 9Access to control over resources & services 10

Case of Milk Vita 11Vulnerability & Coping of crisis 11

3 Community 124 Criticism 12 5 Conclusion 136 Suggestions 14

3

Introduction

Bibliographic Information of the book:

Title: Coping Poverty

A Psychological Perspective

Authors: Mrs. Nurun Nahar Kabir Mr. Ranjan Kumar Guha

Published By: Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD) Kotbari, Comilla

Year : First Published in 2009

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Introducing the Authors of the book:

Ms Nurun Nahar Kabir obtained MSc in Psychology from University of

Dhaka, Masters in Gender & Development from United Kingdom, having 40

research studies ranging from Psychology, Rural Development to Gender

issues. She served as Project Director of different projects of BARD

(Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development).

Mr. Ranjan Kumar Guha obtained Masters with Honors in Management

from University of Dhaka, having more than 20 research studies in various

fields of development. He has developed his interest in the field of poverty

analysis by leading to research project namely Local Level Poverty

Monitoring System at BARD (Bangladesh Academy for Rural

Development). He presented five papers on the issue of poverty at

International conferences. He is now serving as Joint Director (Training) of

BARD (Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development).

Main Theme of the Book:

The pro-poor policy of Bangladesh aims at providing well-prioritized

national strategy for poverty reduction, human development & gender

equality. The book attempts to explore the complex inter linkages of gender

and age with poverty and the interface of both with psychological and social

perspectives. The main aim was to provide an alternative conceptualization

and analysis of resource for coping process and support required for

addressing poverty.

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Structural & physical get up of the book:

The book consists of 168 pages, six chapters. Each chapter contains

elaborate discussion on specific issues with case studies (25 case studies). It

is illustrated with tables and appendices. It is printed on offset paper with

clear black letters and has a matted binding with a nice cover. It also

contains a preface given by the authors. The cover page shows smiling face

of a child behind rods of a window.

Importance, significance and relevance of the book:

This book is very important as it may be helpful for planning development

intervention for the poor to eradicate poverty. It is significant in the sense

that authors tried to explore impact of poverty in relation to different aspects

including psychological point of view, which might not have been studied

before. It is very much relevant as the poor are still representing 40% of our

population who remain under poverty line.

Components of Subject Matter

Objectives:

General objective:

To explore the consequence of poverty on the poorest people from the

psychological perspectives and their coping mechanism to reduce

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stress, vulnerability, shocks by gender and age groups in different

regions of the country.

Specific objectives:

Identify the psychological impacts of poverty on the poorest people by

gender and age

Find out coping strategies of the poorest people by gender and age

Identify access to control over the resources and services provided by

the development organizations and communities to the poorest group.

Methodology:

The book is a research work based on participatory method. The research

was mainly conducted on primary information and facts collected from four

districts of Bangladesh. It is a very useful and effective method where the

trained field investigators were able to collect both qualitative and

quantitative data. In the first phase of fieldwork, the field investigators

conducted a household census. In the second phase of fieldwork,

investigators collected in-depth information with the help of checklist. In the

third phase of fieldwork, the field investigators conducted a large number of

case studies. The major tools used in this research, were Focused Group

Discussions (FGDs) and Case Studies. All information collected separately

from different age, gender and socio economic status groups of Near Poor

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(NP), Poor (P), Very Poor (VP) households. Male and female children of

same economic group were discussed separately for maintaining their

information secrecy. Aged male and female of different socio economic

groups were discussed in different small groups separately. A few FGDs and

case studies were conducted with youth group to know their views

separately.

Stu

dy areas and livelihood strategies:

The different livelihood of respondents is nicely described at the chapter-2 in

this book. This chapter briefly introduces the area coverage, livelihood

pattern and socio-economic condition of the respondents. The major

concerns for selecting the areas were seasonal variations, natural resources

and calamities, difference in language, culture and presence of development

interventions. The natural calamities were flood, drought, river erosion, tidal

wave in the coastal belt. Livelihood system generally defines as the mix of

individual and household survival strategies developed over a given period

of time through mobilizing available resources and opportunities. In

analyzing livelihood three distinct features are observed: entitlement, gender

and socio-economic status (SES). Time specific and season based income,

locality, environment and surrounding opportunities etc. largely influence

the respondents to adjust with these mix strategies for livelihoods.

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Approaches, Perception, Reaction and Understanding

of poverty:

These are described at the chapter-3.

Absolute poverty is measured by assessing minimum standard of living

calorie intake and nutritional levels, clothing, sanitation, health, and

education housing etc. that usually vary according to socio-economic and

political environment. Relative poverty states the relative position of

deprivation as compared to national average income levels. Along with the

perception of shortage of income, poverty also encounters the lack of access

to education, health, technology, inputs, and other social services. It is

related to the need of redistributing the wealth. Though not much significant

there were some differences in perception, reaction, and coping mechanisms

by gender, age, socio-economic condition, and geographic location. In

describing poverty situation the reactions expressed by the respondents of

different age, gender and SES groups were more about their experiences,

feelings and attitude. Method-mix process like FGD, case studies, and close

discussion brings tremendous advantages in building rapport and in going

closer to the feeling retort reaction expressed by the respondents.

Psychological impact of poverty:

It is described at the chapter- Four.

In this book the psychological impact of poverty on children and adult

described separately in a very nice way. In analyzing the findings of this

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study gender dimensions, socio-cultural norms and values (like patriarchy,

power relation, peoples attitude and practice), development and welfare

activities and people access to and control over the resources are discussed

for better understanding of the poverty and psychological perspectives. Poor

people in general face problems of growing unemployment, declining real

wages and unsatisfactory working environment at the work place. Mental

illness among them is in the rise, which is mostly related to stress from

unemployment, increased violence against them, social unrest, etc. Major

reasons for psychological and mental stress informed by the respondents are

mainly four types: social, economical, health and emotional. Social reasons

include dowry, violence insecurity, lack of shelter etc. Economic reasons are

lack of food, unemployment and lack of work and lack of work. Health

reasons comprise chronic disease, disability of the earning member and in

case of women involvement of husband and children in risky jobs.

Emotional ground comprises neglect, abuse, mistrust, negative attitude etc.

This study confirms that the poverty makes a child emotionally isolated

from the society and develop depression, anxiety among the adult people.

Access to control over resources and services:

This is described at the chapter- Five.

Micro-credit means spending money on the income generation activities but

they often spend it to the survival needs, to pay for dowry or for the paying

back another loan. Sometimes they spend the money for treatment and

medication purpose. Based on the above-mentioned situation, the

respondents distinctly divided the types of the credit support they require

into two: a. in cash and b. in kind. The respondents described sources of

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credit support as a. formal (from bank, organizations) and b. informal (from

relatives, friends and neighbors). A significant number of respondents

mentioned moneylenders as one of the important sources of credit. Though

the risk and vulnerability is greater than rate of interest, poor people borrow

credit from moneylenders as they have no options left. Unfortunately, the

institutional credit support provided by the GOs and NGOs for addressing

health crisis and risks was found almost absent in all study areas.

Case of Milk Vita (Established in 1973):

It is also mentioned at chapter-Five.

It organized poor, landless and low-income milk producers of the local area

of Sirajgonj district and create secured marketing facilities through

providing fair price for produced milk. It also supply pure hygienic milk and

milk products foods to the urban areas with fair price.

Vulnerability and Coping of Crisis:

This is described at the chapter-Six.

Natural risks e.g. flood, cyclone, continuous rainfall and draught.

Personal risks e.g. diseases, disability, divorce, homelessness.

Economic risk e.g. lack of ownership of productive assets.

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Political risk e.g. threat from musclemen, negative behaviour of

providers.

Social risks e.g. demand of dowry, lack of bargaining power.

Technical risks e.g. lack of information about facilities coping

competence and poverty.

Community:

Quality of social relation, level of peace or violence, activity

and power of community-based organizations

Coping with poverty includes adaptation with situation silently. Poor people

cope with shocks and problems by using their social capital. They frequently

borrow from relatives to ensure their food for very poor and poor household

it was found difficult to use social capital. MAN said ‘Goriber abar shoshur

bari’ meaning support from Father-in-laws home is not for the poor.

Criticism

Positive aspects:

Poverty viewed as complex multi-dimensional process.

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It includes qualitative variables like participation, community

capability, crisis coping mechanism and psychological attributes.

The psychological analysis shows the socio-cultural practices of the

community significantly perpetuated poverty.

Poverty has been defined by a set of indicators perceived, identifies

and distinguished by the respondents of different age gender and class

in this group.

Taking cognizance different vulnerabilities and address them

differently for bringing equality not only between male and female but

also between different groups based on age, sex, class and area.

Negative aspects:

There was no definite set of indicators to define poverty by the

researchers.

They did not use any clinical tool to measure psychological impacts.

There was repetition of some concepts.

They were dependent only on focused group discussions and case

studies.

The study was also limited to certain areas of the country.

Conclusion

This book generates a vast quantity of uncovered information on coping

strategies of the poorest segment based on psychological perspective and

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finds out ways and means for the GOs, NGOs and communities to mitigate

the psychological stress of these people and to give them the resources,

services and counseling. They need to succeed in better life. The GOs,

NGOs, communities, international organizations, research and training

institutes would be able to devise new development initiatives. Their

involvement with the basic development of the poor people in general raises

questions about how they can contribute to achieve the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs). They already have initiated a number of

programs to redress poverty some of which are effective while others are not

much ineffective. A research needs to be conducted to find out the best

practices for immediate adoption. The findings of the study generate ample

opportunities for the GOs, NGOs and the INGOs as well as the communities

to design effective programmes and to expand a number of existing

programmes after redesigning them for outreach population.

Suggestions

This kind of study should be conducted all over the Bangladesh.

It is necessary to undertake a more comprehensive study highlighting

the different issues so as to have better understanding of the coping

poverty.

Bengali is our mother language. So this type of helpful book should

be in Bangle. We believe that, if this book would have been written in

Bangle it would be more useful to the general.

.

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